Mumbai’s Kaali Peeli To Move Out, Following The Iconic Red Double Decker (Image"x.com/rajtoday)
Mumbai’s Kaali Peeli taxies to wind up forever. These ‘Premier Padmini’ taxies would not be seen on Mumbai’s roads from Monday, October 30. The Kaali Peeli taxies would be following the route of retirement of the double decker red diesel buses of the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply & Transport (BEST) Undertaking.
The last of the Premier Padmini – Kaali Peeli was registered at the Tardeo RTO, under which the jurisdiction of the island city of Mumbai comes in, the mint reported as a transport department official said. Abdul Kareem Karsekar, a resident of Prabhadevi, owns the last Premier Padmini cab in Mumbai, said, “Yeh Mumbai ki shaan hai aur hamari jaan hai,” (this is the pride of Mumbai and my life).
The life-time duration for taxies is 20 years, following which, on official terms, the Kaali Peeli taxies have to exit the Mumbai roads. The decision on Padmini comes after the decision on phasing out the BEST’s iconic red double decker buses, after their service time period of 15 years got over. The news of the two heavyweights leaving the scene in a matter of weeks, has left many Mumbaiites heavy hearted as some have even demanded to have a Padmini kept preserved on a road or in a museum. Some years ago, the city’s taxi-men, one of the biggest unions of taxi-men, had also raised such a demand. The red double decker and the Premier Padmini taxies were among the defining features of the city.
Premier Padmini, the black and yellow car which ran on the city roads, for almost five decades, had become the face of the land. Now, the car can be seen on murals upon the walls of Mumbai city, the mint reported as an art lover said. Of now, Mumbai has 40,000 black-and-yellow taxies. In the late nineties, the city had 63,000 taxies which included the silver and blue themed ones too.
The black and yellow scheme of colours was suggested by Balkrishna Gandhi, freedom fighter and later a Member of Parliament. The suggestion was made to Jawaharlal Nehru, the then Prime Minster, as he said that the above yellow would be bright and visible, the TOI said.
